School Board Meeting: June 20, 2017

001and welcome to the June 20th 2017 regular meeting of the Newport News School Board I want to welcome everybody who came out on this summer evening you'll probably think we're on summer break but here you are so thanks for being here and for folks who are watching tonight online or through our cable TV welcome to our meeting and thanks for tuning in We have a quorum tonight. Everybody's here. All the school board members are present to transact the business of the month. I'd like to begin tonight's meeting with the invocation and pledge. And as is our custom, we do that with, we like to do that and have our meetings opened with our young people who are students rising up. Tonight we have two elementary school students from Nelson Elementary. We have, and I don't

002know if I'm going to pronounce this right, but is it Selah? Selah Holson? And Ariana Maldonado? Okay. All right. Well, thanks for suffering through my pronunciation. We're going to ask each of you to come up and tell us a little bit about yourself first and then proceed. So first, Selah, will you come forward and tell us a little bit about yourself and then lead us in the invocation? Welcome. Good evening. My name is Saywell Holston, and I am a rising fifth grader at R.L. Nelson Elementary School, where my principal is the Honorable Dr. Melody Camp. I am also the CEO. I am also the CEO and founder of my nonprofit, Selah's Diamonds. I make purses out of tank tops, and I send them around the world to underprivileged girls. I named my nonprofit Selah's Diamonds

003because I want every girl to feel special, unique, and loved just like a diamond. This evening I will share a poem titled Myself by Edgar Albert Guest. This poem inspired the mission of my nonprofit and inspired me to live a life of self-esteem and respect for myself and others. Myself. I have to live with myself and so I want to be fit for myself to know. I want to be able as days go by always to look myself straight in the eye. I don't want to stand with the setting sun and hate myself for the things I have done. I don't want to keep on a closet shelf a lot of secrets about myself. And for myself as I come and go into thinking no one else will ever know the kind of person I

004really am. I don't want to dress up myself in sham. I want to go out with my head erect. I want to deserve all men's respect. But here in the shop. In the struggle for fame and wealth, I want to be able to like myself. I don't want to look at myself and know that I am blessed or bluff and empty show. I never can hide myself from me. I see what others may never see. I know what others may never know. I never can fool myself. And so, whatever happens, I want to be self-respecting and conscience-free. Thank you and have a great evening. Very nice job, Selah. Very, very great speaking voice and presence. Thank you so much. Ariana, will you come forward, tell us a little bit about yourself, and then ask us

005to stand and lead us in the pledge. Okay. Hi, my name is Ariana Maldonado. I went to R.O. Nelson for kindergarten through fifth grade. I'm in the tag program and will be going to Dozier in the fall. I love to play softball. I'm on Denby's all-star team. I also love art and baking. When I grow up, I want to open up a bakery called The Chartist, which combines my love of art and being a chef. I love to read and write. I have my own reading nook in my room. Thank you and have a good evening. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank

006you, Arianna. Thank you, Selah and Arianna, for leading us. What great, just what great presence both of you have. Let's give them a round of applause. Sounds like you enjoy doing that. So there'll be plenty of opportunities in the future for you to come forward and speak and be active in your community, your school community. I'd also like to ask the family who brought these two young ladies this far along to stand up, and if they would, let's give them a round of applause. Very proud moment. And we also have the principal, Dr. Cam, and I think we have... Is it guidance counselor? Buckingham. Ms. Buckingham, if you'd stand, both of you. Thank you for everything that you're doing at Nelson. This is just a symbol of all that's being accomplished on a yearly, daily

007basis. Thank you for what you're doing. All right. With those great examples now we're gonna move on and try to have an inspiring meeting next on our agenda is Something that we do every month called board recognitions. I'd like to call on dr. Kilgore to lead us through that. Thank you These are inspiring tonight. We have some very special students that set a record in Virginia We have our special school board member and we've also got some community partners that we're going to recognize tonight Good evening Tonight I have the honor of presenting this month's recognitions. The Virginia Department of Education's Creating Excellence Awards promote best practices in education and recognize exemplary contributions that improve the quality of career and technical education programs. This evening we're proud to share that the school division's Career and

008Technical Education Advisory Council earned the top award in its category. The Newport News CTE Advisory Council is comprised of business, industry, and education partners who serve as advisors to the CTE program. This dedicated group monitors the use of integration of the CTE curriculum, ensures the CTE curriculum is aligned with academic and technical standards, and helps formulate new strategies for increasing community and family involvement in education. For their dedicated service and guidance to Newport News Public Schools, the members of the Career and Technical Education Advisory Committee recently earned a Creating Excellence Award as the top advisory council in the state. Joining us this evening are several members of the council. We'd like to acknowledge each of you. Please congratulate and welcome Melissa Bryant from New Horizons Regional Education Center. Jamal Harris, Director of Economic Advancement for

009the Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. Jeffrica Key, Manager of Career Pathways at Newport News Shipbuilding. Rick Watson, our School Counseling Director at Heritage High School. Tenet Outland, Supervisor of CTE for Newport News Public Schools. Kristi Hopkins, Career and Technical Education Specialist for Newport News Schools. And... Carlton Ashby, school board member who serves on this advisory council as well. The members standing before you represent over a dozen members of the Newport News Career and Technical Education Advisory Council. The members of the CTE Advisory Council support 9,000 CTE students, 92 teachers, and eight administrators through program promotion, career pathway activities, work-based learning experiences, and curriculum review and teacher development. The Council has assisted with coordinating and providing opportunities for the CTE program with summer professional development and job shadowing for teachers, teacher and student internship programs, field

010experiences, career clubs, mentor programs, early college, and early career and student summer learning programs. In May, the council was named the Regional Advisory Council of the Year. And during an awards ceremony held recently, the council was named the top council in the state. Congratulations and thank you for your dedication and support of career and technical education in Newport News Public Schools. Thank you. We certainly appreciate the expertise of these wonderful community partners. The National Security Agency Day of Cyber gives students the opportunity to experience challenging real-life cyber. scenarios, discover the skills and tools used by NSA cyber professionals, and explore the vast number of careers in cybersecurity. In Virginia, Governor Terry McAuliffe promoted and encouraged student participation in the NSA Day of Cyber. Many schools in the Commonwealth participated, and one Newport News school earned

011statewide recognition, Heritage High School. Heritage had 24%... 24% of Heritage students participated in the Day of Cyber School Challenge, placing them among the top six schools participating from across the state. In recognition of this honor, student staff representatives from Heritage were invited to a special awards ceremony that was held at the Governor's Mansion. This evening, we're proud to acknowledge some of the students who took part in the Day of Cyber Challenge and the educators who led the experience at Heritage. Please join me in congratulating our students. Asia Schell, Aaron Greco, Jaquan Jones. I'd also like to acknowledge the teachers, some of the teachers who led this effort. Roderick Barnes, Justin Bishop, Mark Mariano, Olympia Stein, and the program administrator at Heritage, Chanel Colwood. Heritage students use the online career explanation platform to test drive cyber

012careers and experience a day in the life of six leading national security agency cyber professionals. Each student received a cyber resume and an NSA certificate of completion. We're proud that Virginia led the nation in the total number of students who participated, and we are exceptionally proud that Heritage was listed among the tops in the state. So again, congratulations. Please pass along our congratulations. While they're making their way back to their seats, I'd also like to acknowledge the principal of Heritage High School, Shemeika Gerald. Congratulations on this well-deserved honor. Our last recognition is an acknowledgement of service for Cameron Rascoe. So I'm going to ask him to come down, please. This school year, Cameron served as the student representative to the school board. And he's being presented with a gift and also a recognition of service

013in the form of a resolution. And I'd like to just take a moment to read that. It explains a little bit about everything that Cameron had to do this year. It reads as follows, Newport News School Board resolution of recognition presented to A. Cameron X. Rasko, student representative to the Newport News School Board. Whereas the Newport News School Board approved in 2004 the creation of the position of student representative to the school board to increase board awareness of the views of students and to provide a peer with whom students could share ideas for improving education. whereas a Cameron X Rasco a senior well at the time he was at Warwick High School now he's a graduate was elected according to the approved procedures by the members of the student advisory group on education and whereas

014mr. Rasco served in this capacity from July 2016 through June 2017 faithfully attending members faithfully attending meetings of the school board and participating in numerous other school board functions. And whereas Mr. Rasko was facilitator to the high school student advisory group on education meetings and led the annual high school expo at Patrick Henry Mall. whereas Mr. Rasko actively sought student ideas on instructional issues and pursued information and experiences that would assist his efforts to provide valuable insights during the discussion of school board meeting agenda items and whereas Mr. Rasko made meaningful contributions to board discussions on topics of great significance to students and the community. and whereas Mr. Rasko diligently fulfilled all the responsibilities of the position of student representative while also continuing to excel in his studies in the International Baccalaureate Program and Advanced

015Placement coursework, actively participating in the vocal ensemble, debate team, newspaper club, swim team, and the cross country and outdoor track teams, serving and volunteering with Mu Alpha Theta, the Math Honor Society, and fulfilling the responsibilities of captain of the forensics team. and now therefore be it resolved by the Newport News School Board that A. Cameron X. Rasko is to be highly commended for exemplary service, dedication, and commitment during his tenure as a student representative to the school board. Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be spread across the minutes of this meeting for all to acknowledge. In witness thereof, all the members of the school board and the superintendent have signed this 20th day of June 2017. Congratulations and thank you for serving well. And joining Cameron this evening is his mother,

016Ms. Brandi Wright. Would you please stand? Congratulations. Thank you for sharing him with everyone this year. This concludes tonight's recognitions. At this time, we'll take a six minute break so that our honorees and guests may leave if they choose to do so. You're certainly welcome to stay. At this time, our viewing audience will have an opportunity to view this month's school board spotlight. We'll stand in recess for six minutes. Thank you. The class of 2017 is ready to take their next steps. Throughout their time in Newport News Public Schools, our students have received a combination of unique learning opportunities, enthusiastic support, and a range of services to help them develop in a positive way. During Senior Spirit Week across all six Newport News high schools, students and staff were given a chance to reflect on

017the years of growth and glimpse forward at the bright futures to come. A highlight of Senior Spirit Week was the graduation walks at nearby elementary schools. An Achievable Dream seniors went back to where it all started at an Achievable Dream Academy where the young dreamers cheered on their older peers. Demby seniors invited kindergarten, first and second grades from Nelson to visit Demby. After the seniors paraded past the cheering knights, the Patriots returned the favor to encourage the young Nelson students to keep working hard in school. Demby seniors also visited McIntosh and Richneck elementary schools for parades around the schools. Menchville's class visited neighboring Charles Elementary and met with fifth grade students to answer questions about transitioning to middle school and life in high school. The Warwick Raiders visited Saunders for an outdoor parade, handing out

018Warwick stickers to the elementary students. and Woodside seniors visited their neighbors at Greenwood for a school-wide celebration. The graduation walk is a positive experience for all students, giving some seniors a chance to visit the elementary schools they attended and say one last thank you to the talented staff that set them on the course to success. And the powerful image of seniors in their cap and gowns parading by will leave a lasting impression on the elementary students to work hard now so they can graduate with honors in several years. Two minds are better than one. Because of this, the Riverside Elementary Bears love to team up for learning. Recently, kindergartners in Silver Conlin's class worked with Jessica Booth's first graders for a comprehensive learning experience titled Bears Save the Bees. By studying life cycles, plants, and

019weather, the Riverside Bears are doing all they can to support the efforts of nature's hardworking honey harvesters. Teachers Booth and Conlon saw many benefits in having their classes join forces during these units of study, including sharing ideas, collaborating on research, and working together to grow plants and rebuild the garden area. Students kept track of their findings in their bee booklets, jotting down facts, or sketching out their observations. Local beekeeper Joanna Bigley, who has a fifth grader at Riverside, offered unique insights about honeybee colonies, as well as the tools she uses to safely collect honey. She also allowed students to sample the sweet fruits of their labor. Bigley donated seeds to the students, who eagerly planted them in cups and enjoyed watching them grow. Meanwhile, the two classrooms added bee-friendly plants, bee attractors, and built structures

020in the garden to attract bees, pollinators, and other beneficial insects. And as the school year wrapped up, all classrooms in kindergarten and first grade hosted a garden expo for parents to witness their students' discoveries. Each classroom presented a different area of expertise, including water cycle, pollinators, healthy foods, and composting. By teaming up to learn and work together, the Bears are learning that many hands make light work. At General Stanford Elementary, students aren't sitting in their assigned seats, and that's okay. As part of a school-wide initiative called Flexible Seating, Teachers at General Stanford are transforming their classrooms to support positive behaviors and develop lifelong reading habits. This school year, General Stanford is participating in a 40-book challenge to encourage students to read more books by exploring different genres and selecting books that spark their interests. To

021promote this reading challenge, teachers have been expanding their classroom libraries. But instead of simply reading at their desks, Many teachers have redesigned their classrooms to offer flexible seating options that are more comfortable for students. Scoop rockers, exercise balls, collapsible padded chairs, and other cozy seating options allow students to get comfortable while reading a good book or completing classwork. Elementary students are active learners, so wobble cushions, bouncy bands on the bottom of chairs, and rotating stools allow movement and fidgety behavior instead of confining students to hard surface spaces. And students who have difficulty sitting still now have many comfortable options, promoting increased positive behaviors and improved focus on classwork. And many teachers are embracing this new classroom design, purchasing new furniture through DonorsChoose.org, repurposing or reclaiming used furniture, or using their own money to better equip

022their students for success. By encouraging comfort and offering flexible seating options, instead of forcing students to conform to a traditional and uncomfortable learning environment, General Stanford students are exercising their voice and choice to enjoy daily learning. Welcome back to our June 20th, 2017 regular meeting of the Newport News School Board. I hope those who are watching enjoyed the spotlight. And now we're going to move on to the second part of our meeting. Before I start our public comment session, there were some folks here earlier who Mr. Ashby wanted me to recognize who are involved in the Minority Male Mentoring Program. And if they're still here, if you would stand, we'd like to recognize you. Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for what you're doing in our community. It is making a difference. And

023thanks for being here tonight. All right, next we have an opportunity for public comments. And if anybody desires to speak this evening, then I'd ask you to fill out a card like this, and they're at the table out front, and bring them up here to, I guess, Ms. Hinton, and she can get that over to me. And there will be another opportunity at the end of the meeting to have a comment if you feel so moved. Right now I have one card from Ms. Darlene Walker. Would you come forward? Welcome. Thanks for coming tonight. Good evening, everyone. Dr. Kilgore, Board Chair. I'm Darlene Walker, and I'm just here to bring greetings to you all from the National Black Child Development Institute. We are an affiliate here in the state of Virginia, and we cover the

024Hampton Roads area. Our affiliate is basically set up as a venue to help our parents to enhance the things that they're working on with their children as far as their education, health issues, to bring that information to them. us being here today as a part of our public policy forum. And what we're doing is going around to all of the different school board meetings and also city hall meetings to find out what's going on in our community, where we may need to put our action and hands on to just get things going, but mostly to share the information. There's a lot of good information coming out. And sometimes our parents just don't know what's going on. So we're just looking to. Embrace some of the different things that you all are talking about here this

025session and other sessions and share that with our families So this is a part of our public policy piece So we just have one of our other members here and I'd like to recognize Sam Jones who's attending this with me and We just look to do some great things in the community. And also, I'd like to acknowledge Mr. Ashby. We had a wonderful book fair last month at Barnes & Noble. Raised a nice amount of money that day, too, Mr. Ashby. And he came out to be a special reader with us. So we thank you for that. All righty. All righty. Thank you all. All right. All right. We'll move on to item three, our consent agenda, which includes the following items. And so we'll be looking for a motion to adopt all of these

026items, which include the meeting minutes from the May 2, 2017 special meeting, the May 16, 2017 special meeting and work session, the meeting minutes for the regular session of May 16, 2017, financial reports, including revenue and expense reports for May 2017, and the child nutrition report 2017. personnel report authorization and these are pro forma documents that we have to have in place for next year which include the authorization item 3.06 authorization of signature and absence of the division superintendent item 3.07 appointment of the clerk and deputy clerks of the school board for next year item 3.08 appointment of agents and deputy agents of the school board for next year Item 3.09, appointment of person to serve in the absence of the superintendent next year. And item 3.10, appointment of purchasing agent for the school board

027for next year. Do I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Moved and seconded. Call the roll, please. Mr. Hunter. 4. Ms. Simons. 4. Mr. Stodgehill. 4. Mr. Ashby. 4. Mr. Brown. 4. Mr. Ely. 4. And Mr. Harris. 4. Motion carries 7-0. Okay, next we have action items. And under item 4.01, we have personnel actions. The superintendent has made a recommendation. Would you like to make any comments? Yes, I'd like to introduce the people that we're going to recommend. Thank you. As we're building our team for next year, we have some outstanding people to recommend to you tonight for the leadership team in Newport News. I want to start with Oriole Robinson-Taylor, if you stand. I want to recommend Aurielle to be our assistant principal at Heritage High School.

028She has a master's degree from Cambridge College and her bachelor from St. Paul's College. She has been a teacher in Hampton and an administrator in Hampton and is currently working at the Capitol Hill. High School for Public Policy, a charter school in Washington, DC. We're glad she's coming back to the peninsula and to be the assistant principal at Heritage High School. Our second recommendation, I'd like to recommend Sean Halloran to be an elementary assistant principal. Sean has a master's degree in education administration from Old Dominion University and a master's degree in curriculum instruction and special education from Old Dominion University. He has been a special education teacher and a middle school teacher and was an administrator in Hampton for several years. And now he's going to come to us as the assistant principal at one

029of our elementary schools. The third recommendation is Katie Sheehan-Smith. Katie has a broken leg, so we won't make her stand up too long. I want to recommend Katie to be our program administrator for the Woodside Center for Arts and Communication. She has a... She has her master's degree from Old Dominion University and her school leadership certificate from Liberty University. And she has spent her career as a dance teacher at Bruton High School, the art school in York County. So we're glad she's coming to Newport News. Thank you. And the last recommendation is Carmen Couric to be our... to be our instructional supervisor for our pre-K one programs. Carmen is not coming from anywhere except from us. She's been a part of Newport News for a long time. She has her bachelor's degree from Longwood and

030her master's in reading from Old Dominion University. She's been a kindergarten and first grade teacher for us in Newport News, a reading specialist. She currently is our instructional specialist. for pre-K one and then this new position she will supervise our program so we're glad to have you do that thank you so those are the personnel recommendations for tonight okay do I have a motion to approve the superintendent's recommendations okay there's enthusiasm any discussion Then call the roll, please So we welcome you all to your new assignments for next year This is part of getting next year queued up in a well-planned And for those who are coming to join us or coming back or have been here and moving up We really appreciate you signing on to the mission and the team again and looking

031forward to what you can accomplish next year and in the future. Thank you. Thank you all. All right. Next we have 4.02, proposed textbook adoptions. We've heard a report on this in previous months, and the textbooks have been on display. foyer. So do we have a motion to adopt this textbook program? Motion to approve the textbooks. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Then call the roll, please. Mr. Hunter? Four. Ms. Simons? Four. Mr. Stodgehill? Four. Mr. Ashby? Four. Mr. Brown? Four. Mr. Ely? Four. And Mr. Harris? Four. Motion carries, 7-0. All right. Next item 4.03 we have new and revised policies and procedures which we've heard a report on by Miss Brooks in previous meetings. Do I have a motion to approve the policy and procedure changes? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Okay. No? Then

032call the roll please. All right next last action item is item 4.04. These are federal funding applications There's information in your packets and I think you've heard a presentation on this previously It's for Title I, Part A, Improving Basic Programs. Title II, Part A, Teacher Quality. Title III, Part A, Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient and Immigrant Students. Do I have a motion to approve this application? Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Call the roll, please. Mr. Hunter. For. Ms. Simons. For. Mr. Starchill. For. Mr. Ashby. For. Mr. Brown. For. Mr. Ely. For. And Mr. Harris. For. Motion carries 7-0. All right. Now that we're past the action items, we're on to reports and information. So first up is item 5.01, and Mr. Brian Nichols, our chief academic officer, is going to come up and

033talk about strategic support, accountability systems. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, Dr. Kilgore, members of the board. It's an exciting time in the Commonwealth. We have proposed accreditation standards. So everything we know about accreditation is really going to shift dramatically in the next couple of years. Next year sort of this year in a couple days. We'll start the next year These accreditation standards could be in effect. It's very much in draft form. So just let you know right now the questions you ask I'll probably say not real sure about that. I'll get back to you Because it still has to go through the State Board of Education But we wanted you to see an overview of what the State Board is thinking and what a dramatic shift it is So as you know As you may know

034there we go A lot of this is grounded in the work of profile of a graduate. The State Department has really shifted to this approach to get a student in Virginia life ready. We call it in Newport News, citizen ready is what we're working on. So you can kind of see this is really the framework that the State Department is working from with content knowledge and career exploration. And if you go down to the double arrow at the bottom, you'll see things like critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, communication. This was really exciting to us when it came out because what it immediately made us think of. is this. This has been our mission for quite some time, to prepare all kids to be college, career, and citizen ready. The new language by the State Department

035actually is college, career, and civic ready. So you can see, I'm not saying they're using our stuff, but we're really on a similar path. So it's nice to be out ahead of this. And when you look at our College Korean citizen ready skills you see they mirror nicely those profile of a graduate skills that they want kids to have So really ahead of the curve on this piece. Thanks to the leadership superintendent the school board in adopting these Just to give you an accreditation comparison. It's just a quick Venn diagram for you The current system we're on under accreditation is a moment in time system where you take a test on a single day Maybe two and you get a score and a school is determined accredited partially accredited and all the different accreditation denied

036and all those different variations. The new system will rely on multiple measures and I'll show you those in a second. What they both have in common is they're still going to heavily rely on those SOL results. But there are some changes and some shifts that I think are positive as we move forward. So here's the proposed accreditation matrix. There are Several different factors that would go into a school being accredited. The first one is the one you're most familiar with and that is SOL achievement. The piece that's added to it for the first time is progress. Never before have we looked at student progress in terms of accreditation. So a kid may not actually pass an SOL test, hit that magic 400, but they've moved from a 317 to a 367. That's worth something. It's

037worth recognition from the student. With that growth mindset piece, it's worth something to the school that you've really moved that kid further along in the journey. The second piece is something we're pretty familiar with, but it's coming into state accreditation for the first time, and that's student group performance. So how are specific groups of students performing in Newport News by school? The third one, which is brand new and never been tackled before in an accreditation system, is chronic absenteeism. We've got some exciting absenteeism data, which you may have in your packets, about how we've been able to reduce chronic absenteeism. Just a quick number for you. Two years ago, we had over 10,000 kids miss more than 15 days. This year, we had 5,000. So we've cut that number in half in two years in

038that chronic absenteeism. So we're excited about that. You know we're excited about graduation and dropout rate. because we are leading the state in both of those categories. Graduation has been in there before for high schools. Dropout rate has not been included before. So we're excited about that piece as well. Chronic absenteeism is just for elementary and middle school. Graduation and dropout is obviously just for high school. And the last piece is probably the one that needs to be figured out the most. This is that notion of, is a kid really college, career, and civic ready? is what they're calling it, the State Department. So that could have multiple forms like service learning. Have they participated in service learning? Have they had an internship? Have they done work-based learning? Do they have industry certifications? Which this

039year you'll see coming up that we have over 3,000 by our kids. So we really feel ahead of this curve on all of these metrics. So we're very excited about it coming forward. So what they'll do with each one of these metrics is they'll break them into three levels. So level one, you're at or above the standard. So each one of them will have a standard, and I'll show you an example of a proposed one. Level two means you're near that standard, so there'll be a range. For instance, one of the things that really gives us trouble is hitting 75% in English. You know, it's the only one that's at 75%. The rest of them are at 70%. In this new accreditation system, near standard would be above 65. You'd be rewarded for being above

040that mark. We're still going after 75, but if you're not quite there, you still will be rewarded in the accreditation system. And then level three is below the standard. So let me show you what that looks like with one of the metrics. So I've taken the dropout rate piece So if you're gonna be at or above the standard your current year or three-year average Is between three percent and five point nine percent now I won't quiz you on what our current rate is now, but it is two point four percent Just so you have an understanding of where we fit in this level one Category we would be sort of that above the standard and they would do it for heritage they do it for menstrual they do it for for all of those or

041You were in level two, but now you've decreased that dropout rate by 1.5 percent. That's gonna be really hard for us to decrease dropout rate by 1.5 percent if we're starting at 2.4. But we're doing really good in that measure. So level two is your current year or three-year averages between 6 percent and 8.9 percent. So you can see that there are two different ways to make these levels. You do it outright by hitting the percentage or you're reducing that rate by a certain percentage. you'll see that trend for all of those metrics. So achievement, absenteeism, as long as you're moving in the right direction, the State Department is going to recognize that. And the level three is that you're below the benchmark and you're not showing improvement. So that's how you get to that

042level three piece. So here are the designations. This is one of the things that I'm kind of most excited about because right now our accreditation designations have negative connotations to them. you're warned and you're denied or you're partial or you're full and you know it's got these things that are sometimes difficult to understand how you get from one to the other so there'll be three designations you'll be accredited so no long call fully accredited you're just accredited the second one would be you're accredited with conditions and the third one you'd be denied accreditation the new nuance with accreditation denied is that you're only denied you fail to implement a corrective action plan. So if you are not compliant with the board and the State Department that's when you would be denied accreditation because it shows

043them you're not making efforts to improve. So if you're making efforts to improve you will be in that accredited with conditions. category or you'll be accredited. So we're excited about those changes because it's going to reward the hard work and progress of school divisions like Newport News and it will also it'll be an interesting time to look at this data across the State Department. So those are the designations. Let me give you a timeline. So 2017-18, that is the school year we're going into right now, is going to be a transition year. So we'll actually play under both rules. We'll have the old accreditation system. We'll have the new accreditation system. We'll do both. And the way it works, school by school, we'll choose the one that benefits us the most. So it's kind of

044a fun year to be in. You can use the old system if that works for you. You can use the new system if that works for you. It gets us acclimated to how to crunch the numbers and how to do those kind of things and how to do the work we need to do. So it gives us a year to kind of work on that. 2018-19 is the new accreditation metrics. So it'll be the only game in town except for that college, career, and civic ready indicator. That indicator does not come into play until 2021-22. And a good way to remember that is that is the current, they just finished in seventh grade, so our upcoming eighth graders will be the first cohort to have that college career and civic ready indicator applied. So we're

045a good five, six years away from having that as part of the accreditation system. That's because that's the one that needs the most detail added to it. So that's the timeline from our standpoint. Next steps, the Virginia Board of Education is going to host public hearings throughout the state. The closest one to us is in Virginia Beach in August. They'll vote on the new accreditation matrix. It's actually going to be a little later than that. We were in a webinar yesterday. October, November is when they're going to vote on that matrix with hope for governor's signature in December, and then it'll go into play. Reports on individual accreditation measures will be made to you guys this year. What we'll do is we'll take individual segments because it's a lot to digest. As exciting as I've

046made this tonight, it's a lot to digest in one presentation. So we'll take the achievement one, run you through all the different factors. We'll kind of show you how we're doing right now under that and what we need to do to move forward. And we'll do the same thing with absenteeism. graduation dropout and so forth so we'll take you through each one of those as we go out through the year we just wanted to give this to you tonight so you would see the overall shift and that it's a big game changer for the state and it's exciting for us to be a part of it so that's what we have in terms of a new accreditation system i'd be happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability tonight comments assignments So

047do you think that Newport News Public Schools will in the transition year, do you think we're going to use the old system or do you predict that we're going to try to use the new system? We'll use both. So really it's going to be the one that benefits. So just let's take our high schools for instance. Heritage High School we may use the new system because some of the progress measures are going to benefit them more. you know, work, we may use the old system. So we get to choose per school, which is nice for us. Some of our highest performing schools will probably stay under the old one. It's the schools that aren't performing under the old system that will probably shift over to the new one because they're making the most progress in

048terms of student by student achievement. There's also a provision in there for ESL kids under the new. system for language proficiency added to progress which is a huge shift taking them out I mean how would they tease out the them as a group every kid has a state testing identifier which has all of their information and a nice neat little barcode so that's how we would do that so it has all their Testing information there. So we'll see what their SOL score was. We'll see what their WIDA is the test we use. We'll see what their WIDA score is for language proficiency. We'll see what progress they've made from third to fourth. We'll see all of that kind of stuff per kid. Oh, that's great news. So it's exciting. One other question. In your opinion,

049do we have enough, like let's say they want every high school senior to do an internship. Do you think that's in the realm of possibility and do you think that there really are enough? Interested community partners and employers to do that or is that is that just gonna be? I don't worry about Newport News. I worry about places in Southwest Virginia, and I worry about places that don't have as much industry. The State Department is making it very user-friendly. So, for instance, if you're taking an internship course, which we have hundreds of kids doing that, we have hundreds of kids taking a service learning course, that will also count. Work-based learning is a wide continuum of opportunities for kids. So that's another reason why that won't. won't be part of the system until 21, 22,

050because it gives a lot of places time to figure it out. I feel very fortunate that we're pushing in that direction already with our academy approach with Governor's Health Science, Governor's STEM, Aviation, the career academies we're doing at Heritage. I mean, those all have that kind of piece to it. And then the... Your CTE credentials. I mean, we have 3,123 as of today just for last year alone. I mean, that will count. So, I mean, we're in a really good place using that menu approach. Would every kid have a standard internship? That would be a little more difficult to do. Okay, but there will be a menu of options for getting that. Correct. Okay. Yes, sort of a continuum of experiences for kids. And kids will do multiple throughout that piece. Thank you. You're welcome.

051That was a great presentation. Thank you. comments or questions Cameron I did have a quick question but to address miss Simon's comment about possible internships and whether or not would be we'd be ready I was actually thinking about before whether the industries we had in Newport News were ready about the students and the curriculum that they're being given as far as seniors and juniors that want to have internships the issue that I knew a couple of kids from at least Woodside and Warwick based were not not whether they could find an internship, but whether they had an opening in their schedule and whether they had already gotten the accreditations and or whether they had already gotten the certifications and gotten the credits that they needed to graduate in the first place. So I think about

052front-loading their schedules, not so far as giving them AP classes their freshman year, but making sure that they have already taken as many math, science, and social studies courses as they need to graduate before they get that. industry certification before they go into any sort of internship. But my question was, during the designations that you had as far as level one, level two, level three, what would a... corrective action plan look like and by what does that look like I mean what have examples of those look like in Newport News oh sure so it really depends on what you need corrective action in so let's take absenteeism for example so say that's the indicator that we're falling short in or math or whatever it is then you would work with the State Department It could

053go before the school board, it may not go before the school board, and you come up with a list of actions and best practices that you need to put in place based on sort of a gap analysis of here's everything you're already doing, here's some things that are best practices that you should implement, and then we lay them out and put who's in charge of them, what's the timeline, sort of that standard improvement planning tool, and then we meet quarterly. With the State Department to go through how are we doing and document that evidence? So it's a it's a format we've used in the past for other accreditation systems but it's Fairly standard straightforward and it won't be an overall corrective action plan. It'll just be for the areas that So someone was dealing or

054a school was dealing with absenteeism issues and they were at an accreditation denied status It wouldn't take too long for them to get to a credit Well, they'd only be an accreditation did not status that they failed to comply in the first place So I mean so it really is kind of that piece you get from a level three to a level two So if you're working with your board and you're working with the State Department then you're going to be in pretty good shape so and we have a pretty good track record of doing that okay that's great and just in case you have this question none of this is retroactive it does not impact you at all you still are a graduate a diploma safe great presentation thank you that was trash I

055just want to comment reference to the decrease as far as attendance is concerned with children that are absent more than 15 days. That is a huge, huge achievement or accomplishment, a drop of 45%. So hats off to teachers, I guess, instructional assistants, principals, support specialists. Everybody obviously is playing a part in that, and definitely our parents. But one of the things as I was having my one-on-one with Dr. Kilgore, The expectation that you're going to be in school is phenomenal and how people, getting children to think and to say, but no, daddy, mommy, I want to go to school. I'm expected to be in school. I think that mindset, you mentioned growth mindset, and that's part of it. My growth mindset is my expectation, and my expectations are I'm going to be in school. I

056think my second comment is... It's a reference to how accreditation is going to be looked at and viewed now and what's going to happen. Because, you know, you commented and you complimented on how Newport News Public Schools has been pretty active and proactive in reference to that. You know, the college, we're going to be, have our children to be college, career, and citizenship ready. That is huge. And I know in the... 11 years in which I've been on board, as soon as I got on the board, that was already implemented. So that mindset in reference to this is what's coming down the pipe, this is crucial and critical. I've shared publicly, you know, I've read the book called Leadership Dubai Style. The first chapter is called Hello Tomorrow. So the decisions that are described in

057that book or that state in that book, what somebody is doing today, tomorrow isn't that today is Tuesday and tomorrow is Wednesday. Tomorrow is the decisions the things of which we are putting in place how it's going to look a year from now How's it going to look five years from now? Obviously the superintendent has seen that Years ago, and that's why the state is now trying to catch up to Newport News Public Schools Which is really really a phenomenal phenomenal thing so hats off to the Newport News Public Schools family to the superintendent Successful people are visionaries, you know, they not just simply look down the road They look down the road and they look around the corner and obviously that's what Newport News Public Schools has done So congratulations to you, congratulations to

058the staff, but that's why our children are excelling in all arenas as far as education is concerned. Thank you. And the board is also to be commended for approving the strategic plan, having smart benchmarks in there that push us. We talk about industry certifications because it is a benchmark that we're pushed on. So we have those lined up for college career and citizen readiness. I mean, it really is a joint effort that comes from that strategic plan and the board and the superintendent's leadership. Thank you. Mr. Harris. Could you give me some examples of how we reduce the chronic? after T of the mid school? Absolutely. So one of the big pieces is that it came from our strategic plan and became a project for our senior staff. So two of the people leading that

059project, Katina Clark and Michelle Mitchell, are in the audience and really kind of spearheaded a lot of the efforts around there. The biggest piece of it was an awareness campaign. For years we chased notes like as long as you brought me a note It was okay, and we shifted and it was really a hard shift for people I don't care if you have a note or not you're missing time in school So that's what we need to address. So we stopped chasing notes and started chasing why are you not in school. So each school had a campaign. We had a big marketing effort. We have a logo. We're branded. People know. If you go in our schools, you'll see posters that kids who are in school X number of times are more likely to, those

060kind of pieces. So that was a big part of it. That's just one factor. We work with our attendance officers. and our family engagement specialist, and kind of got this whole network of people who were doing similar tasks, and kind of here's your lane, and here's what you're doing, here's your lane, and here's how we all converge at the school level. So if the kids miss 10 days, here's what we need to do. And then we treated the absences differently. So if you missed it because you had to go out of the country for two weeks, that's different than you've missed two days every week for three months. So we need to attack those differently. We were attacking those the same. One is a one-time deal. The other is we really are out a lot

061every Monday, Friday, and so forth. So individualizing the approaches for schools. And by not chasing notes, we freed up a lot of people to really get to the heart of why a kid wasn't coming to school. Well, I would just like to point out that after seven years of serving on this board, I think it's not always been obvious. you know, where we were going and what we needed to do. We had a strategic plan. But sometimes looking back is the way to see that, you know, all that you've accomplished and then to see the pattern and to see the strategy. I just, in seeing this college career and civic measurement now working its way into, you know, accreditation. seeing the development of the whole child, the whole student. It's not just about taking tests

062that have sort of a one-dimensional measure of what you've accomplished. It's looking at the whole spectrum. This college career and citizen-ready component was here early in Newport News, long before it showed up at the state level as a priority. In fact, it's only been the last two or three years we've been hearing about that as a priority at the state level. But it's been a priority here for as long as I've been on this board. And so sometimes I think the leadership it takes to get something figured out early on and implemented. long before it becomes the measuring stick, is the measure of real, true leadership and expertise. And that's come through our superintendent and the leadership staff that's here. And so tonight is kind of proof simple that we've been on a path that

063in some ways has been trend-setting, has been... It's proven to be the path to be on. Graduation coaches led to decreasing the dropout rate and moving to a 92% or better graduation rate long before that became a goal statewide. And I think we just have to turn and realize, looking back, at least I do, that... We've accomplished a lot ahead of time and here we are I think moving into a period of time where we're gonna be able to We're gonna be able to see that Newport News has been in the leadership Through the implementation of some tough Increased standards and we've learned a lot about how to do this and it's it's really been the superintendent and the staff And the leadership with the administration that's helped to put this in place I wish

064I could take credit for it, but I'm certainly glad that we've been able to to be here and have that And have that leadership. I thank you all for that. We're pretty excited about our future Thank you, thank you. All right next we have item 4 I mean 5.02 And we'll have miss Angela Rhett and mr. Anthony Tyler Come up and talk to us about summer learning opportunities and Newport News public schools welcome and good evening Good evening chairman statue members of the board. Dr. Kilgore I'm Anthony and I are pleased to be here this evening to share a preview with you of the various summer learning opportunities that we have available Some of them are currently underway and some of them are getting ready to get started, but it's a nice preview for you

065Anytime we're fortunate enough to share our work, we always like to begin by just grounding it in the philosophy that guides us. And for us in this presentation tonight, it really is all about this idea of smart is something you become. Because we really embrace that idea of a growth mindset because we believe that every person in our school division, regardless of their role, should take advantage of the many opportunities that we provide them to learn something new. So with that in mind. Our presentation this evening is going to be divided into two segments. So I'll begin by talking with you about some of our staff learning opportunities that we have available. And then I'll turn it over to Anthony and he'll talk with you about our student learning initiative available through SPARK. Yeah, it's

066not working. If you don't mind, Michelle. Thank you. So with staff learning, we're going to look at three big areas. We're going to begin by talking about some of the opportunities that we have available for all of our staff members. And then we'll move into looking at some of our specialized offerings because we do have some unique initiatives for our new hires. And from that, then we will talk about our initiatives that target some of our focus areas, and we're making this possible through different teacher cohorts. So first, I'd like to begin by talking about our Ignite Summer Catalog. This catalog features more than 70 courses that are organized around three focus strands, which you can see up here. We've got Teaching and Learning, STEM Quest, and Youth Development in the Classroom. Underneath each of

067these you can see a sampling of the different courses that are available, but this is truly just a sampling because we do have more than 70 options available for our staff members. And all of our course offerings connect back either to our content or performance standards, and they support our mission of developing students who are college, career, and citizen ready. New this year, we also have an Innovate Technology Conference. This is being hosted by our technology department, and it will be held August 7th and 8th at Crittenden Middle School. And through this conference, participants are going to explore the transformative ability of technology in the workplace. And once again, off to the right-hand side, you can see a sample of the different sessions that will be available. Moving on then, we do have some specialized

068offering for our new teachers, and this is made possible through our Start Smart initiative. Start Smart is our concerted effort to welcome our new teachers and to give them a jump start on their learning. So we make this happen in three ways. The first is through our new teacher welcome centers. And with our welcome centers, new hires select a day when they can actually meet with a current educator, and they get an early start on our culture, our curriculum, and our technology in Newport News. Essentially, it's a small group Q&A session to get your questions answered. We also have summer school collaboration opportunities and this is made possible through partnered visits to summer school classrooms or through collaborative teaching opportunities where we actually have new hires who are paired with master teachers and they're in

069a co-teaching environment where at the end of the day they can debrief on what happened in the day and the learning that they experienced. And then finally, I mentioned on the last slide our Ignite courses. We actually have a dedicated week in August. It's that first week in August in which all of the classes are relevant to the needs of a new teacher, and that's always a popular one for them. And then moving on from here, I mentioned the idea of initiatives that target focus areas through teacher cohorts, and we're making this possible through our reading cohorts. Let me first back up by saying that in order for learning to be effective, we know it has to be in response to our needs and to our data. Research tells us that struggling readers and those

070who are learning the English language require focused instruction and our data tells us that our ESL population is growing and trends suggest this will continue. So in response to this we're actually partnering with UVA and the College of William & Mary and we've got two cohorts of teachers. Each cohort will include about 20 to 25 teachers and upon graduation those teachers will be certified as reading specialists. Our UVA cohort is currently underway. The teachers have one year under their belt and they've got two more years to go. And our William & Mary cohort is getting ready to begin. Our William & Mary cohort is actually unique because upon graduation, not only will they be endorsed as reading specialists, but they will also have an endorsement for ESL as well. So once again, we're acting in

071response to our data and in response to the needs that we have. And so to wrap it all up then, opportunities are currently underway. We actually started yesterday, and these offerings run through August 15th. We do have more than 70 classes that are available across the division, but on top of this, we also have many school-based opportunities, and each site is developing those in response to their student data and needs. So with that, I'll turn it over to Anthony to talk about student learning. Good evening, Mr. Chair, Dr. Kilgore, members of the board. I will be talking to you this evening about our summer learning opportunities for our students, a part of our extended day learning program. Our summer presentation is SPARC, is our summer program for arts, recreation, and knowledge. As you can see

072in the right-hand corner of the screen, Michelle. We have our standard learning model and the three focuses of our model is academic support and enrichment, community and business partners, and meals, providing meals, field trips, and transportation for our students. The advantages of SPARC is to make sure that all our students are college, career, and citizen ready by having different experiences. We offer academic enrichment, support of teachers, coaches, mentors, community partners, and then we also talk about field trips. meals and transportation for our students. If we take a look at this organizer, we have our grades K-2, 3-5, and 6-8. Our locations for this walk will be for our K-2 students, Denbigh Early Learning Center and Learning Child Center and Marshall Early Learning Center. For our 3-5 students, we will be at Epps Elementary School, Newsome

073Park, and Palm Elementary. And for our middle schools from 6th through 8th grade, we'll be at Huntington and Passage Middle Schools. And by the graphic, you see that we have our morning learning opportunities that we offer to our students that will focus on academics. And in the afternoon, we'll have our enrichment opportunities that will focus on athletics, recreation, field trips, technology, and STEM and career opportunities for our students. The next slide is for our 9 through 12 grade students that will be focused at our high schools, be it Woodside High School and Heritage High School. We'll be offering our opportunities for academics through credit advancement, credit recovery, SOL remediation, stimulating minds, freshman transition, outdoor education, Summer Institute of the Arts, the music production, and magnet programs. And also with the enrichment piece, there will be

074offered field trips and athletic experiences. We have four magnet opportunities that will be offered to our students this summer. We will have our Stimulating the Mind Summer Enrichment, which will be housed at Heritage High School. We'll have our LIFT program that is linking innovation to flight technology, which will be housed at Woodside High School. We have our Medical Explorers program, and that will be housed at Woodside. And then we have our Summer IB program that will be housed at Woodside as well. This summer, August 2017, we will be introducing the newest part of our extended learning summer program. That is our Spark Camps. The Spark Camps will offer opportunities for students in grades 3rd through 8th. It will be a two-week program that will start on August 7th and end on August 17th. The programs

075for the Spark Camps are designed by our local community business partners. coordination with Newport News Public Schools. And again, like with our regular SPARK program, we will be providing free transportation and meals for our students. As you see for the next slide, we have nine community partners and two Newport News partners that will be sponsoring the SPARK camps for our students. And then we have the kayak camp, which will be sponsored by Newport News Public Schools. That will give our students opportunities. with the kayak camp that will give them opportunities to explore the Hampton Roads watershed by kayaking. The areas that they will be exploring will be the Ragged Island over in Isle of Wight County, Grandview Beach in Hampton, Warwick Yacht Club, York River State Park, Rogers A. Smith Landing in Yorktown, and the

076Bat Creek in Yorktown. And that concludes our summer part for our SPARC. At this time, Angela, I'll take any questions that the board may have. Thank you, Ms. Rath and Mr. Tyler. Comments? Mr. Brown? Sure, yeah. I really like how we've combined the teacher learning and with the student learning. I think that's a great way to look at it holistically, that everyone's getting better and everyone's learning. I also really am very encouraged to see that the program continues to expand and we're offering more activities. And I wish these things were around when I was going to school, going kayaking. in the summer. That sounds fantastic. Yeah. Agreed. Just a couple of questions around. You generally ask this question always. We've had a growth in students over the life of SPARK. This year is how many

077more kids do we expect or anticipate getting into the SPARK program as a whole through the whole division? And then the other question is around the meals. So we've had previously the three meals, and is that still part of the program? And, you know, yeah. Are the kids going to be able to get those three meals who were in the SPARK program? Yes, sir. To answer your first question, for our regular SPARC program, our target is 6,000 students for this year. And for our SPARC camps program, we are targeting 1,000 students for the two-week program. In the mid, the students will receive three meals. They'll get a breakfast, lunch, and then a take-home snack. Miss Simons. I am so excited about this partnership with UVA and William & Mary because I know we really do

078a lot of outreach with CNU and we get a lot of our new teachers from CNU. So I just want to get a clearer picture of this. So are these teachers going to be here all summer or just for like a short period? And can we try to get them to come and work for us? So the teachers are actually our employees. The cohorts are working on master's degrees. So they will graduate with master's degrees in curriculum and instruction with a concentration in reading or a concentration in reading with an ESL endorsement as well, depending on the university. All of the teachers are our employees. We had a number of teachers who applied, and we had a screening process in which we had a panel of teachers who helped us to identify the 25 teachers.

079And these teachers knew that if they committed to this, that they were committed to staying with Newport News upon graduation for at least three additional years. But we have teachers who are with us for the long haul beyond this. So it's a great investment for us in terms of return on our students and the needs that we see and building employee expertise, working with colleagues. It's a great opportunity all. around and will they be working with our students with our spark summer school students at all Currently the teachers are not and the reason why they're not is because they're actually in classes in the summer and so that kind of gets in the way but many of the teachers like they're already putting their learning into action by moving into interventionist roles and things like

080that so they are having the opportunity to impact students on a different level. So are these students actually so our teachers are enrolling are they going to William & Mary and UVA to take the classes there or do we have professors coming here? So for UVA, they actually have their classes on-site at the UVA Newport News Center, which is over off of Jefferson. And then for William & Mary, the professors are actually going to come on-site to one of our schools, and we'll just designate a school as the location, and they'll hold class there. It'll be one evening a week. That's great. That sounds like a wonderful opportunity for our employees and just another reason to come and teach for us in Newport News Public Schools. That's great. Thank you. Yes, question? I was also

081loving the teacher involvement in making our summer more active than it's ever been before. And these classes are really exciting as well. The focus strands that you talked about. Could you walk me through a little bit more what these specific classes are about? The Building Positive Classroom Cultures class and the Explore, Code, and Learn with Ozobots class. Sure. So for building positive classroom cultures, that's really targeting. That's one of the classes I talked about that week where we target our new teachers. So it's that opportunity for teachers to come and learn a little bit about the culture and the expectations in Newport News. So how do we develop a classroom culture in which it's not about a compliance-based setting, but it's about developing young people to understand how do we behave in a classroom? How

082do we act? How do we interact with each other? Essentially, it's saying how do those CCC skills come alive in the classroom? on a daily basis. Okay. And the Explore, Code, and Learn with Ozobots class. Yeah, so we actually have made possible through some grant funding some sets of Ozobot robots. And so they're available on a checkout basis. And we have folks in our school division who have developed professional learning experiences tied to our curriculum and tied to the standards of learning. And then teachers who sign up learn and explore more about the Ozobots. But then they have the opportunity throughout the school year to actually apply that learning in their classroom. So the person who hosts it can come on site and they can do anything. classroom support with them and they can use

083the Ozobots together to transform their math instruction or their science instruction and show how robotics fit into that. Awesome. Great to hear. Thank you. Anybody else? I just want to highlight about the youth development in the classroom. the youth development classroom and I'm sure that is one of the attributes as to why there has been a decrease as far as discipline challenges are concerned. So if we're being proactive in reference to everything from organization, classroom management, relationships with children, connecting them, seeing their purpose, I know that's a huge attribute. So that is crucial and critical and I'm so glad that Newport News Public Schools is doing that. To Mr. Tyler in reference to the SPARK program, it's a comment. I have a team leadership academy and today I sat them down, made them sit on

084the floor because for three Mondays they will be going to Marshall Learning Center to read to the young children there. So SPARC is a wonderful program. I know we started like two years ago or three years ago, but it's a phenomenal program. It really gets our children doing some wonderful things through the duration of the summer. The meals that are prepared for them, all of that really attributes to the sustainment of learning through the duration of the summer. So hats off to SPARC program and also what we're doing for our teachers and instruction. That is crucial and critical for the ongoing success that New Plymouth Public Schools is experiencing. So thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you all for your comments, and thank you for your report. And it looks like it's going to be

085a really great summer for our children. Kids as well as our teachers Thank you. Thanks for putting this together. All right So, let's see we have item 5.0 3 through 5.05 which include an attendance report a membership report and a construction report and Unless there are any specific Needs to talk about any details in there And the only detail that I would like to point out is that I think it's a really momentous occasion that we dedicated the Discovery STEM Academy, and that's a huge accomplishment, and I'm glad to see that on the construction report in the accomplished column. So if there's no need to discuss anything further on those reports, I think it's time for comments by the superintendent. All right. Thank you very much. You heard in our last report mentioned about smart

086is something you become in Newport News. Well, I get the job tonight to congratulate all of our 2017 graduates and talk about how smart they did become while they were in Newport News Public Schools. We held our commencement exercises two weekends ago. and had over 1,600 young people graduate in this community. They've completed a very rigorous course of study, much... much bigger requirements to graduate than when probably a lot of us graduated and And they really I think I'm walk across the stage saying that I'm college career and citizen ready I'd like to show you some data about their accomplishments to show you how ready they really are for this world First there are graduates the 1600 young people earned 43 million dollars in scholarship offers Almost half of those graduates earn an advanced studies

087diploma, which really is a very difficult diploma, and that requires additional courses in math, in science, and three years of world language. So it's a pretty challenging diploma to receive. 70% of the graduates were enrolled in early college dual enrollment IB or AP. So they took really, really challenging classes when they were here in Newport News. And as Brian already mentioned, they earned over 3,000 career and technical education credentials, which allows them to walk into a workplace and say, I've mastered the skills that you want. when you hire people and I have my credential to show that. So it really is kind of a key to the next door in your life. So I feel like we have all worked so hard together to lay the groundwork for these young people and that graduation is

088one moment in time when we can say, look at what we did. And then we get on to the next thing, but we can take a minute and say, look at what we did, I think. I want to thank the students. I want to thank their families. I want to thank the teachers and the staff for making these schools so supportive, so inviting. It is the place to be to come to Newport News Public Schools. So I look forward to next year and all the neat things that will happen. But do take a moment and say we did really well this year. So thank you all very much. Thank you. And it was really, really obvious in graduation what our students had accomplished. And we get a chance to look at that year over year.

089And every year it gets better. So thank you. Thank you. All right. We have another opportunity for public comments. Do we have any cards? Okay, no cards. We'll move on then to matters by the school board. And I'll start with our student representative, Cameron Rasco. All right. for the final time. I'm just going to begin with my favorite part that I've done so far this year, helping out with the school board. And that's really been the kids that come up at the beginning, seeing the opportunities that they're taking advantage of, even going to Newsome Park, even going to Samford Elementary. That's really been a source of enrichment and encouragement for me as someone who loves working in this community. And looking forward as to what we can achieve based on what I've seen that we've

090already done this year Here's basically a blueprint of what I can see for Newport News Public Schools because you know They say the sky is the limit and honestly I see us breaking the stratosphere in the coming years even though I won't be here to see it I'll be watching on social media, but We've had so many of us graduate with honors, with highest honors, already getting an associate's degree, and I see that becoming the standard. I see us not only setting a trend, but setting a bar for younger students to where they can not only complete an advanced diploma, but complete those credits early during their junior year so that they can take advantage of more CTE certifications and internships their senior year because we already have so many opportunities within the community. I

091see many of us graduating, going to Ivy Leagues, and being able to graduate with scholarships from the multiple, multiple community organizations and businesses and other groups within our community that are willing to give them money because we are creating career, college, and citizen-ready students. So that's what I see for Newport News, and I truly hope Sophia, if you're watching the one who's coming up after me, I do hope that she can follow through with this and bring forth her own ideas in the coming years. So thank you for the time that you've given me, and please continue to do the great things that you do in Newport News. Thank you. Thank you, Cameron. Nobody's held your chair in quite the exemplary fashion, so they're big shoes to fill. But good luck in where you're going

092in the next phase in life. Yes, sir. Thank you. Mr. Ashby Just first of all once again congratulations to Cameron you've done an absolutely outstanding Outstanding job and it's my honor to sit next to you and to share the talk and interact with you I know there's some your vision of where you're going to go the sky's the limit for you. So we just simply kind of kind of see that I just also want to say congratulations to all of our graduates. I've been very fortunate and blessed to serve on some powerful boards, I mean committees, in reference to CTE and also the guidance counselors for Newport News Public Schools. And I just want to take about 30 seconds to share what the counselors have done for Newport News Public Schools this year. They have

093presented at the Professional School Counselors Conference. We've had the Minority Male Mentorship Program. In addition to that, that our Director of guidance, Dr. Claudia Hines was featured in the article, The Effects of Expressive Writing on General and Mathematics, Anxiety for a Sample of High School Students. They've offered several financial aid workshops. Our students, they've taken students to Virginia Tech for yearly visits. We've had college night in Virginia, and College Application Week was a phenomenal, phenomenal success. We've also had, they've had Gear Up. And in gear with Newport News Public Schools was selected to represent urban schools with gear up regional cohort for a federal internal external evaluation site visit That's going to happen December 15th and December 16th Lastly that the counselors encouraged 200 students to participate in attend mega Genesis also want to simply

094share Thank you for the Black Child Development representation that's been here. Thank you for the work in which you are doing. You're making a huge difference. Thank you for wanting to partner and talk and work with all school systems because this is all about our children. So we thank you so very, very much for that. And then also I want to just simply turn and look at our school board chair and just thank you for your leadership that you have displayed and demonstrated these last couple of years. You have done an outstanding job, so thank you so very much. Mr. Harris. Make it short and sweet. Cameron, I want to shake your hand and thank you for your service. He's headed off to the Naval Academy, I believe. Yes, sir. All right, so which means

095he will be committed to four years of school and an additional probably six years of service to this nation and nationally and abroad. You also... Show them great leadership as a young man on their school board. So it's a great testament to yourself, your family, for all of the support. And also you've shown great leadership in the city of Newport News. So I wish you the best, and we'll see you in four years at graduation. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Harris. Ms. Simons. I also want to congratulate all of our graduates and also say how proud I am of our school system for the new Discovery STEM Academy. I attended the dedication ceremony with members of city council, and I can say the whole city is so proud of

096that space. It's a space that encourages children to explore. and collaborate and learn from each other. It's the best example we have of 21st century learning, the kind of learning that's really going to enable our students to compete in a global workplace someday. And when you go in the building, it's just filled with light. And it's just a very happy place. And I would say to the public that that building sends a message to our kids. That building tells them that we love them and that we want the best for them And I think as we move forward as a city We really need to think about that for capital improvement needs and planning for renovating our schools And we need to think about these buildings as important places that send a message to our

097children So I hope as we move into the next phase of the year when we're asking the city for some support for our capital improvement needs, all of our money does come from the city. We don't get any funding from the state at this point. That, you know, that we encourage everyone to come together to really support the kids and make sure that these buildings make them feel good the way that Discovery STEM Academy makes the kids feel good. So thank you. Thank you, Ms. Simons. Mr. Brown. All right. Well, I'm reflecting on this great year. We come to the end of one school year and begin the transition into the next. This has been a great year, a better year than last year, and every year continues to get better. I feel very fortunate

098to be in a community and to... to work with colleagues and an administration that are so forward-thinking and have helped us to achieve so much. I pause and reflect on our graduating class, and as I reflect on that, there has been significant progress year over year, and I reflect on the policies and the procedures that we've worked on as a board, that they are really making an impact and a difference. We have more students today. graduating with a 3.0 GPA or above than ever at any time ever before and that is not that is nothing short of amazing that is not no small feat. And that doesn't happen without committed resources at the points where it really counts, where it really matters. Having kids enroll, automatically enroll in AP classes, getting more kids involved in

099summer school with Spark, focusing on absenteeism, getting more kids in school. All of those things come together to make a successful graduating class like we've seen. And I expect that it's going to just continue to get better and better. Hats off to everyone for just an outstanding year. Very, very proud of everything that we've accomplished this year and really looking forward to next year. And to Mr. Rasko, I want to say all the best as you go off to college. I hope that we see you again very shortly. We expect you to come back and talk to us about. how Newport News has prepared you because you're going in the next four years or five years you're going to have a real perspective on how well you were prepared and we would appreciate you telling

100your story as to how well it prepared you for your endeavors and as well I really appreciate I think that the student voice on the board is a very valuable voice and it's really great to hear that the things that we talk about and we've envisioned the students are seeing it and and realizing that these things are achievable like having associates degrees by the time you graduate and so i really appreciate that vision and that's something that i've championed for quite some time and i think that we are going we are in the process of getting there and probably when you finish college you come back and you'll be seeing the results like that so just hats off to everyone and looking forward to a bigger and brighter future thank you mr brown mr ely

101I just want to say how excited I am about this new accreditation for our school system. It's just amazing to know how happy I'm sure teachers are going to be to know that they're able to see how they're making growth and not being judged on how they're... child get on a particular day. That's the main thing I'm happy about because I know so many teachers and they just be so stressed out about their SOL scores. I mean, honestly, I don't think that's fair for our teachers, administrators, staff to be so stressed on how... your student deal on that particular day because you don't know when that child had their last meal. You don't know what that child is going through at home. You don't know what time that child went to sleep. So this, I

102think with this new plan we have, it's going to show all the great things that are going on in Newport News Public School System. Because in my book, all the schools are credited because we go beyond the call of duty, our administration, the school board staff, the parents, and big... Thank you to the PTA. I was a part of the PTA board. And the PTA, all the parents that were involved was just amazing. So I just want to say how proud I am to know that our government is working for us and know our concerns of definitely making sure the accreditation measures the achievement of success instead of measure how little Johnny did on Monday or Tuesday when he took his test. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hunter. Mr. Hunter. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again,

103there's great things happening in Newport News, public schools, as you're aware, as you've heard. I'm going to be very short. First, I'm going to say thank you to Cameron. Good luck in your next adventures and your next endeavors. I'm certain we'll see you on the TV, at the White House, or somewhere very important. It's been a blessing to have you on board with us, and I've learned a lot from you. Like you've learned a lot from us, it's a two-way street. Again, good luck and congratulations on your recent graduation. Again, thank you to all the recent, what, 1,700 graduates we've had. Thank you to the parents and their relatives. They were so, you know, cooperative and polite. I hadn't seen any disruption. It was wonderful. That's getting college, career, and citizen ready. and takes a

104good citizen to do the right thing. I also want to like to thank our chairperson for these 12 months. You've done an outstanding, actually it's been 24, 23 months. You've done an outstanding job. It's been a pleasure to sit right next to you, to learn from you. You've been a great inspiration. Just like many of us and all of us we have children first always at hand You are a pleasure. It's been an inspiration to have them as our leader That means it to all the students have a safe positive and exciting summer break Thank you. Thank you, Gary so Cameron. Thank you for representing your student body and showing us everything that we hope and dream for our students to become and for wearing that and showing that to the community you know and

105all the work you've done here you're a fine young man you'll have a fabulous career in front of you and we wish you all the luck in the world so go out and Beat Army is what they say, right? It's hard for me to say because my father-in-law is a West Point graduate, so I know I'm going to get beat up at home on that one. And I'd also like to shine a spotlight on Dr. Kilgore, just extending the earlier comments. We've been under a fantastic... expertise of foresight and leadership and I think it tonight was just a moment where we see that you foresaw many of the pathways that we needed to travel in and to pursue I think it was last year you said we've got to start doing something about our attendance

106so thank you for your clairvoyance for your foresight for your Council your wisdom to stay on a track to accomplish something and I've no idea how you how you've done that but it's it's really clear we've been on a very confident path of leadership and We're starting to see the results. I remember one of the things you counseled me on early on was in the face of the story about if children can't read by age three then there's really no future for them. But the real story of the last weekend was with more than 90% of our kids graduating, they do accomplish. It's more important what they accomplish over 12 or 13 years here with our school division than how they come to us. And it's taken a lot of fortitude to be able to

107see that and push that in the face of some of the story and narrative and critique out there. So thank you for all of that. It's been wonderful working with you, all of you guys. I feel very blessed every day to have this job, so thank you very much. And lastly, it's been a pleasure. And I thank the board for the privilege to serve as the chairman. And I also believe that it's a position that needs to rotate from time to time. And I gladly, if you didn't catch the picture, I'm looking forward to this being my last meeting and a new chairperson being elected for next year. Not because I'm tired of it or I don't like it. I do think it needs rotation. It needs to be shared amongst the board. There's a

108myth out there that somehow the chairperson is in control of the destiny of this board, and that is not the truth. My daughter came home with a story one night. She has a great way of trivializing what her parents do. And she was dating a guy, and he lived in James City County, and one day he figured out I was the chairman of the school board, and they were driving along, and he said, understand your dad runs the whole school division in Newport News and she said oh no he just attends a few meetings the truth lies you know somewhere somewhere in between and I encouraged I encouraged the board to find your new chair and realize that that person will represent you, but mostly they will run an orderly meeting and they will try

109to keep an eye on the time clock. And then they'll need to, at frightful moments where things happen that they're not completely in control of or had planned, they'll need to gracefully exhibit the true personality and values of all of you. giving each of you an opportunity to express yourselves and not overshadow anybody. It's the job of a traffic cop trying to make sure that the meetings happen and they don't bog down. And I would really like to thank all of you for being fantastically cooperative and supportive. It's been a real pleasure to serve in this chair. Thank you. Thank you. All right, and if there's no need for closed session, thank goodness, then we will be adjourned good night